Speak To Me ....... an original

GONZO-X

GONZO-X

Well-known member
Speak To Me ....... an original

experimenting with pedal point here....

https://soundcloud.com/bats-brew/speak-to-me

use the download button to get a 16 bit/44.1khz wav, if the streaming sux
speak_Page_1.jpg
 
Dig the song (might drag on for a bit longer than needed).

Only technical issue is there's a touch of sibilance on the vocals, sharpness on those S's etc. I also typically have more kick presence but that's a mixing preference thing.
 
Sounds good to me, I like the sitar-like sounds at beginning and end. Like Pinky, I think it drags out a bit too long - probably because there's no change to the overall rhythm and structure, even when you go to th elead part, the rhyhtm stays the same.
 
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Pinky said:
Dig the song (might drag on for a bit longer than needed).

Only technical issue is there's a touch of sibilance on the vocals, sharpness on those S's etc. I also typically have more kick presence but that's a mixing preference thing.
Click to expand...

you know, i TRIED to tame that sibilence....
and found out, that the freq's that needed taming, were the same freq's i wanted to hear to get the clarity on the voice!

OOPS

a tracking error..
as it is, i placed a comp, and a deesser, across the vox buss, and it helped (you should hear it without it.....)
but of course, i'm draggin a lot of my "ssss's...." out on purpose, as a means to focus certain words,
and in those instances, i just can't de-ess enough without killing the clarity,
so i found a happy medium.

as far as the backing tracks, meaning, everything except the guitars and vox,
these drums and bass tracks (along with the assortment of odd instruments) are from a 320kbps MP3 file i had from a earlier collab,
i converted the mp3 to wav and ran with it.... could not get the original tracks....
and i had to use the mix as it was.....

i tweaked the hell out of it to get it where it is,
that's about as far as i could milk it.

i could do an entire post on JUST what i had to do to work with a 'demo' backing track from an mp3 file.
LOL

thanks again for listening...
 
mjbphotos said:
Sounds good to me, I like the sitar-like sounds at beginning and end. Like Pinky, I think it drags out a bit too long - probably because there's no change to the overall rhythm and structure, even when you go to th elead part, the rhyhtm stays the same.
Click to expand...

thanks mjb,
the sitar is a sample, originally played into nuendo with a midi keyboard,
then tweaked.

the idea of the 'no change' is intentional..
it's kind of a 'hypno' approach..... some people like that, some don't....
almost like a dance track, but more trippy and more rocking.
 
GONZO-X said:
as far as the backing tracks, meaning, everything except the guitars and vox,
these drums and bass tracks (along with the assortment of odd instruments) are from a 320kbps MP3 file i had from a earlier collab,
i converted the mp3 to wav and ran with it.... could not get the original tracks....
and i had to use the mix as it was.....

i tweaked the hell out of it to get it where it is,
that's about as far as i could milk it.

i could do an entire post on JUST what i had to do to work with a 'demo' backing track from an mp3 file.
LOL
Click to expand...

I once used a vocal track recorded with an iPhone 3 for a song. Sounds like we would have interesting notes to compare of hellish engineering. :D It sounded good, but would have been better done properly. Point being - compromises are audible. [now I'm going to email this vocalist to see if they want to retrack it, since they have the proper gear to do them over again properly... wasn't even on my radar of things to do but why not]
 
I'm going to go a little against the grain, here. I love this song.
I was listening to this tune a little while ago. Turned it on and got mentally involved in something else entirely (the mail to be honest) in the other room. Darned if I didn't think it was a radio song before I came back into the room and realized I'd left your track playing. Really good stuff! Vocals are completely oustanding! This could almost pass as pop if it was a lot less complex (still just might).
Tweak: The guitar part at 27-36 and starting around 3:28 is a bit overblown, but well played.
That's it...
 
Bruthish said:
Cool song. I heard the sibilance too a couple times in there, but wasn't too bad
Click to expand...

thanks for listening, bruthish....
the sibilence, yes, i almost think it has to stay, for the clarity of the words spoken.......
i can surely tweak that kind of thing more, tho
 
BroKen_H said:
I'm going to go a little against the grain, here. I love this song.
I was listening to this tune a little while ago. Turned it on and got mentally involved in something else entirely (the mail to be honest) in the other room. Darned if I didn't think it was a radio song before I came back into the room and realized I'd left your track playing. Really good stuff! Vocals are completely oustanding! This could almost pass as pop if it was a lot less complex (still just might).
Tweak: The guitar part at 27-36 and starting around 3:28 is a bit overblown, but well played.
That's it...
Click to expand...

hi broken,
glad you dig it as is.....
i think the effect i was going for, is what you fell into, that's cool....
and yes, i can do overblown guitar.
LOL

it is what the fans ask for.

:D
 
checked it out. Sounds reasonable. It sounds like a song that they'd of played in background club scenes of Wayne's World or Wayne's World II. Reminiscent of 80s/90s metal/grunge crossover to my biased ears
 
The verse vocal lines are kind of dragging the tempo down. Chorus is good though.
I haven't (and rarely) have any mix issues with your stuff. Consistent high quality writing/playing/recording over the past 5 or more years I've been checking you out.
 
MusicalSound said:
checked it out. Sounds reasonable. It sounds like a song that they'd of played in background club scenes of Wayne's World or Wayne's World II. Reminiscent of 80s/90s metal/grunge crossover to my biased ears
Click to expand...

ha! waynes world, waynes world.....

i can say,
i never honestly heard any 80s or 90s grunge or metal bands use any of those instruments in the backing track, save for the couple of electric guitars....!
heheh
 
GONZO-X said:
thanks for listening, bruthish....
the sibilence, yes, i almost think it has to stay, for the clarity of the words spoken.......
i can surely tweak that kind of thing more, tho
Click to expand...

Here's something you can try, and I have had excellent success with this. I once deessed an entire track with this method. It took me forever, but it sounded really nice and natural. Simply use a pre-fx volume envelope with three points and make an extremely deep notch right on the 'sss'es that you want to get rid of. It will likely surprise you how deep of a notch you can get without any negative effect on the track. If the 'sss' drags on, putting the deepest part of the cut closer to the initial part of the sound is best. Tedious, yes, but it works. If you do this, then you can have your cake and eat it too.
 
ido1957 said:
The verse vocal lines are kind of dragging the tempo down. Chorus is good though.
I haven't (and rarely) have any mix issues with your stuff. Consistent high quality writing/playing/recording over the past 5 or more years I've been checking you out.
Click to expand...

hi ido...

well, the vocal is doing exactly what i want it to do,
so i think i needed something to smooth the tempo back and give it a laid back feel,
while the backing tracks are cooking along.

this is how i feel the song,
that approach to the verses is subjective, i know, but it's spot on.
 
kindafishy said:
Here's something you can try, and I have had excellent success with this. I once deessed an entire track with this method. It took me forever, but it sounded really nice and natural. Simply use a pre-fx volume envelope with three points and make an extremely deep notch right on the 'sss'es that you want to get rid of. It will likely surprise you how deep of a notch you can get without any negative effect on the track. If the 'sss' drags on, putting the deepest part of the cut closer to the initial part of the sound is best. Tedious, yes, but it works. If you do this, then you can have your cake and eat it too.
Click to expand...

are you saying 'automate' the eq notch?

or automate the fader envelope, and just drop the sss's where they occur?

i already did that, as well as apply a de-esser..

i think part of the problem, is that folks are unaware that i'm actually stressing the SSS's in certain places on purpose.
 
GONZO-X said:
are you saying 'automate' the eq notch?

or automate the fader envelope, and just drop the sss's where they occur?

i already did that, as well as apply a de-esser..

i think part of the problem, is that folks are unaware that i'm actually stressing the SSS's in certain places on purpose.
Click to expand...

No, not EQ, yes sort of the fader envelope, but pre-fx if you can. Not sure about your DAW, but in REAPER, you can automate the track level either before all of your FX or after. Very different results. If done before the FX, then in this example, the sss's are basically removed before any other EQ's (or compressors) or whatnot can boost them, so they are simply no longer there to cause downstream issues.

I'm not suggesting that your sss's in this tune are even objectionable. I was just making a suggestion in case you wanted to go further into it (based on the conversation that was already happening in this thread). Looks like you already took a similar approach.

Tune is kick ass by the way!
 
WELL THANKS all the same, i'm always looking for new fresh approaches to engineering issues..
i'd much rather somebody else just did it all for me!!

LOL

but alas......
 
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